goldmom

Also, keep checking your reservation. The site can be glitchy. Sometimes when I've gone in I don't see a way to upgrade one person and the next time I go in it'll show both names with a little box next to each of them that you can check to upgrade just the one person. If you see it then do it immediately as the next time it may be gone again. LOL! If it never pops up then as said above easy to do on the ship. Enjoy!

Well, I don't understand why the OP has "cancel for any reason" insurance for a free cruise. I understand having lost luggage or health coverage insurance but the "cancel for any reason" insurance is usually very expensive. How much would you actually get back if you cancel if the cruise was free?

I was wondering the same thing. When I had my 3 adult children in one cabin the first 2 got the FAS drink package and the third one had to buy the package, even though he doesn't drink. I think that rule is in place to avoid the exact situation that the OP is asking about.

Yes, applies to Free at Sea package. You can keep the wine in your cabin. Enjoy!

I had read something about reserving a space and saving some money. Is there a coupon or a code to get the discount? Thanks

There is a Courtyard Butler who takes care of the Courtyard area during the day. He will bring drinks and breakfast or lunch to you in the CY. Not the same as on the bigger ships with a full Haven area, but at least it's something. Enjoy

Depending how far away your cruise is, I would keep checking to see if any other cabins in the same category become available. If a non-handicapped cabin becomes available or if one of the other available cabins have a price drop then I would switch my cabin just for peace of mind. Good luck.

If you get the 2 bedroom Haven suite ask for an egg crate topper. Makes a huge difference. We've stayed in both types of suites. And while I love the huge balcony on the aft suites I found that we stayed in our cabin more and probably didn't utilize the Haven as much as we could have. But then we're old and lazy! Lol! On the Joy, I think I would opt for the suite in the Haven. Joy has my favorite Haven with the adult only sundeck with hot tubs and the Observation (Horizon?) Lounge. It is really convenient to just pop out to the Lounge for coffee or a snack. And the suites with large balcony really do have a usable balcony and can fit 2 lounge chairs easily. Enjoy whatever you decide.

There is a "Behind the Scenes Tour" for a cost. It includes the Galley. You should be able to make reservations for the seafood restaurant once on board. Do that first thing after you get on the ship. Sorry, can't help with blackjack, but I remember thinking the minimum was high.

Not in the Garden Cafe, but on the Joy I would pop out to the Lounge in the morning to get coffee, muffins and fruit for DH and myself. I used the tray from the room under the ice bucket. It's small but was enough to carry a few items back to the room.

You should be able to see all your reservations when you log into your account. If one of them is missing there is a place on the left side of the screen where it says something like "don't see your reservation" fill in the info and hopefully the missing reservation will come up. Been on many NCL cruises and never had to set up a separate account for each cruise. Agree with above poster. Been in Neptune Suites and Haven. Haven is hands down the winner!

My guess is that the Cobb salads are pre-made and to give you bacon on your hamburger they'd have to basically take it off the Cobb salad. My thought would be to ask the Matre D at breakfast if they can save some breakfast bacon for you to have at lunch on your hamburger, or order the Cobb salad and move the bacon! I know you'll have a great cruise even without the bacon! Really enjoying your reports and pictures.

When we were on the Jade the sundeck was definitely above the Courtyard. We were in a Courtyard suite and I don't recall having access to any other sundeck areas in the Haven. You'll have to go exploring and let us know what you discover!

The Haven sundeck is above the Courtyard. I believe what you are seeing on deck 15 forward is the private sundeck for the Garden Villa.

They do allow visitors (guests) for weddings. I think they need to supply their ID information before boarding. And there's probably exceptions to the no visitors rule for special guests with proper clearance. But, it used to be that you could just go on any ship that was docked and look around. I think we even sampled the buffet on some to check out the food!

I believe it happened in 1985.

Unless you have an Owners suite or above there will be a charge for any items in the mini-bar. The Haven area on the Jewel class ships are very small. There is the Courtyard area with a small pool, hot tub, a couple of tables and some loungers. There is a Courtyard Butler who will bring drink orders and serve breakfast and lunch. There is also a small buffet with morning pastries and afternoon snacks. No music in the evening. The Courtyard is pretty much empty in the evenings. We have found it's a great time to use the hot tub, although on some ships we've been on they closed off the hot tub in the evening. On others it was open. There is usually a laundry special at least once I believe it's $29 for a bag of laundry. While they do a pretty good job I wouldn't send anything delicate. You can eat anywhere you choose on the ship for dinner. The Concierge can make reservations for you. You will, of course, be charged for any specialty restaurants.

You can google Achille Lauro to get the full story. Basically, terrorists boarded a cruise ship, I believe, in port and held passengers hostage. They killed a passenger in a wheelchair and dumped him over board. It was a sad and terrible event. There was a movie made about it.

Thinking back, it may also have started after the Acchile Laurel (sp?) incident. I think that was when cruise ships started being more concerned with security , but definitely after 9/11.

Don't know Bill Miller, but he sounds very interesting. I believe they stopped allowing visitors after 9/11. I remember you could go and check out the other ships docked next to yours. it was a fun thing to do and gave a little preview of another ship.

On GSC you may want to look into renting a cabana. It will give you a shaded area to hang out and also work for nap time. And you'd have access to the beach. I'm not an expert on this as we never got the cabana (missed GSC) but I remember researching it and they looked really nice. Enjoy!

I don't know about the Smokehouse for lunch. We were offered the American Diner for the free embarkation day lunch.

Enjoying your report. We were on the Dream for the same itinerary 8/21/07 so looking forward to reliving the trip with you.

We've had some lackluster butlers and some excellent butlers. And I understand that if you're not happy with the butler's service that you can have a chat with the Concierge. The problem there for me is it would make me then feel very uncomfortable around the butler for the rest of the cruise. I guess we could ask for a different butler but that might not be possible. At this point we just don't expect much from the ones who are lackluster and reflect our feeling with their tip. We try to make our requests very specific and if they still don't deliver good service we just let it go and not let it interfere with enjoying our vacation. We really don't ask the butler for much so a bad butler really doesn't affect our trip that much. Although I do admit that a great butler does enhance the experience.

No, only on the newest ships is there a dedicated Haven elevator that goes to other decks. On the Joy, the elevator is inside the Haven complex near the bar area and only goes to the 3 floors within the Haven.